I was just learning how to fly fish when our guide Rex took Stephen and me to the Rio Grande River, just outside of Creede, Co. The trick to fly fishing is that you walk upstream, cast your fly behind the trout, and let the current take it downstream.

The stream that day was fairly fast moving with a rock bottom. If you tripped and fell, the results could be disastrous. Best case is that you get a little wet and have to fight off the chills in the late afternoon. Worst case is that water comes rushing in your waders with such a force that you become a rock and sink, OR the force of the stream takes you downstream to the Texas border.

The trick is to shuffle your feet, use a wading staff, and don’t get in a hurry.

Easy peasy.

I had not yet caught a single fish on the fly. I was two days into learning how to fly fish and was just getting to the place of being able to put the fly on the water instead of in the trees. Stephen and Rex waded ahead of me into the canyon wall section of the stream. I was fishing the washouts and faster moving water as it came out of the canyon.

After a couple of hours, the water exploded. I grabbed the line, lifted the rod and felt the sweet satisfaction of “The Tug.” The rush was incredible. Now came the hard part – landing the fish and taking a pic to prove I’d finally caught a trout on a fly.

I’d seen Rex and Stephen do this trick of keeping the line tight while walking downstream so that you don’t disturb your fishing hole. This allows you to land the fish and then walk back upstream to pull more fish out of where you caught the last one. It’s a fairly straightforward process. How hard can it be?

I never made it to the second step.

I didn’t shuffle my feet. My wading staff was on the bank. I was excited about catching my first fish, so I was hurrying.

I never realized how fast waders could fill up with a cold mountain stream.

In the span of 10 seconds, my chest waders were full, and I was headed toward downtown Creede, Colorado. I dug my heels into the bottom of the stream and found a rock above water to hold on to. I worked my way around to the backside of the rock where the current wasn’t as strong to catch my breath.

I managed to drag myself to the shore and crawled on to dry land. I knew immediately what I needed to do, but for a split second, I debated doing it.

It’s just embarrassing. Maybe I could make it back to the car before hypothermia set in. That way nobody else would know what happened.

Pride can really influence you to make some stupid decisions, can’t it.

Instead, I did the right and smart… and embarrassing thing. I took off all my clothes down to my underwear and found a big rock in the sun so that it could warm both me and my clothes up.

For the next couple of hours, I sat there in my underwear doing exercises to keep warm. I got a chance to wave to a fellow friendly fly fisherman as he was heading upstream to where Rex and Stephen were fishing.

Embarrassing.

But alive.

What’s the point of this?

We are going to learn in this series in front of us that the abundant life that Jesus promises us is only found in Kingdom Living. And we will only be able to experience Kingdom Living if can get over ourselves.

Embrace the failure. Do what you know you need to do, not what your pride is telling you. Take it to Jesus, and wait on Him. Don’t try to cover it up with lies or good works or explanations or excuses.

Just embrace the situation for what it is. You messed up. Now find a Rock and get in the Son. Let Him go to work on the situation.

I know it feels counter-intuitive to our way of life. I know we feel this huge amount of pressure to ‘fix it’ ourselves. I know the temptation to think, “Maybe I can make it to this point, and no one will know.” But all of that is just our pride trying to talk us into another bad decision that will not lead to life.

As we learn more about the Kingdom and how to live in it, know that it starts with understanding that we can do nothing to earn it on our own.